<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>chewed off its wrist at the shackle and waved goodbye by lieyuu</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27981402">chewed off its wrist at the shackle and waved goodbye</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lieyuu/pseuds/lieyuu'>lieyuu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>a softer world [ i ship dream smp and happiness ] [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dream SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Clay | Dream and Eret are Siblings, Cuddling, Deity Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, King Eret (Video Blogging RPF), M/M, Realistic Minecraft, They/Them Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), and doesnt know what to do about it, dream goes to his big sibling for advice bc he made his boyfriend smad, sibling relationships, thats it thats the fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:00:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,226</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27981402</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lieyuu/pseuds/lieyuu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>[ home is where the heart pulled the nails out of its feet and fled ]</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The throne room is cold and dark, especially on nights like these, but it’s where Eret feels most at home. It was a gift, after all, from the only person they really can call home anymore. Not that he’s been much of one lately. </p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clay | Dream &amp; Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>a softer world [ i ship dream smp and happiness ] [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042497</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>188</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>chewed off its wrist at the shackle and waved goodbye</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>note: this story is non-canonical within the <em>a softer world</em> continuity, aka dream and eret are not siblings in literally every other fic in this series. i just kinda wanted to write it bc. of the vibes. i said to myself. "okay tubbo being dream's brother is popular and tubbo being eret's brother is popular so what if eret and dream were brothers" and just ran w it</p><p>archive locked for a reason; do not send this fic to the content creators, recommend it to the content creators, or otherwise make them aware of it. thank you for respecting both my and their boundaries.</p><p>title taken from <a href="https://asofterworld.com/index.php?id=1126">this strip</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The throne room is cold and dark, especially on nights like these, but it’s where Eret feels most at home. It was a gift, after all, from the only person they really </span>
  <em>
    <span>can </span>
  </em>
  <span>call home anymore. Not that he’s been much of one lately. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eret lounges on the throne in a manner very unbefitting of a king - parallel, legs hung over the edge of the armrest, book propped up in their lap. The words are being very annoying tonight, so they eventually sigh and toss it off towards the side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perfect timing, I guess,” a hoarse voice says wryly, and Eret glances sharply up to see Dream sitting on the rafters. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How long have you been up there?” they ask, eyeing the windows suspiciously. Not one is open - he must’ve closed them after getting in. Or he walked in, intangible - who knows what his god powers give him the ability to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just a few minutes,” Dream responds, and Eret frowns a little at the way his voice is. Still powerful, commanding fear and respect the way it has been since he was granted godhood, but it’s scratchy. Less tsunamis and hurricanes, more cracked desert earth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come down,” Eret says, purposefully softening their tone. “You’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I haven’t,” Dream insists, but when he laughs, Eret can hear the wetness. He obediently jumps down from the rafters, lands easily on his feet. Godhood has made him dangerous, more reckless - Eret worries for him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t lie to me, Dream,” Eret points out. They pull their legs in and tuck their feet up, patting the empty space on the throne beside them. It’s the truth - Dream can’t lie to them, hasn’t been able to since they were seven and eight respectively. Eret knows his tells.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can certainly </span>
  <em>
    <span>try,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Dream says huffily, but he comes closer anyways, and sits on the throne gingerly, tension coiled in the ridge of his spine and the set of his shoulders. He carefully doesn’t touch Eret.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eret frowns at that, and lets it hang for a moment before wrapping an arm around their brother and pulling him close. They can </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel </span>
  </em>
  <span>the way Dream settles, taut muscles softening and the way a full-body shudder goes through him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” Eret says, leaning back against the throne and staring up at the visible stars. “What’s got a young god crying in this castle at ten PM?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dream maybe-flinches when he says that, so Eret turns and tugs his hood off. “Don’t tell me you’re developing a conscience now,” they tease, and considers it a small victory when Dream at least smiles. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dream is quiet for a moment, then asks, soft like he’s scared to, “Do you… think I’m doing terrible things?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On instinct, Eret goes to answer </span>
  <em>
    <span>yes, duh. </span>
  </em>
  <span>They bite their tongue just in time, and wince at how terrible that probably would’ve made the entire situation. “I think,” they start carefully, shifting and unclasping their cloak, “you may have lost your way a little.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can be mean about it, Eret,” Dream says tiredly. “I don’t - I’ve gotten the worst of it, already. And I don’t think you have that big of a mean bone in your body anyways.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah,” Eret says, realizing. There are very few other people in this kingdom who would be able to make Dream actually consider what he’s doing - and very few who would, as he says, give him the worst of it. “Lover’s spat, have you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck off,” Dream says, pushing at them half-heartedly. “I - no. Yes. I don’t know. I think - I think he might hate me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dream hunches over, and Eret realizes, with an unsettling feeling they haven’t felt in all too long, that he is crying. Out of habit, they wrap their cloak around Dream’s shoulders and murmur meaningless platitudes, pull him close and let him hide his face in their shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Like they’re kids again, after Dream got hurt in fist fights on the street. Like they’re teenagers, on the run from a home burning and parents dying. Like young adults, Dream coming home, shining with ichor and godhood. That had been the last time; Eret doesn’t see much of their brother now. Physically or metaphorically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He doesn’t hate you,” Eret reassures. “I highly doubt he ever could, if we’re being honest. He’s just a little angry with you right now - again, if we’re being honest, as he should.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know,” Dream says, a little miserably. “Fuck, yes, I know. God, I don’t - what’s happened to me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He says the last part quietly, and he’s still been wearing the stupid mask this whole time so Eret can’t even see his face, but they imagine they know the fractured expression they might find beneath it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well,” Eret says. “Do you want that alphabetically or chronologically?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut </span>
  <em>
    <span>up,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Dream says, but he’s laughing when he does, and when he shoves at Eret it has a little more playful energy behind it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eret laughs with him, then sobers. “In all seriousness, Dream,” they say. “An awful lot has happened to you, over these past few years.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Since you became a god </span>
  </em>
  <span>is left unsaid, but judging by the way Dream turns away, he hears it anyway. “Just… listen to us. It’s okay to just be - you don’t need the power. You know you don’t. You don’t need to start wars. It’s okay to just live in a little cottage, or a castle, or a regular-sized house. Get up in the mornings and make pancakes for yourself, feed the cat, sleep an easy night without a weapon in hand. Really, it’s okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dream shudders and he blows out a breath and says, “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can’t. </span>
  </em>
  <span>It’s - there’s something beneath my skin, Eret, and it </span>
  <em>
    <span>burns </span>
  </em>
  <span>and it - it hurts, and I don’t know what it wants but it wants </span>
  <em>
    <span>something </span>
  </em>
  <span>and sometimes I can’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>think </span>
  </em>
  <span>because of it - ”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stands up, abruptly, turns away. “I’d love to stop,” he says, voice sounding dangerously close to breaking. “But I can’t. God, I can’t. You should just kill me here while you have the chance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eret watches him, a king’s cloak still draped around his shoulders. It looks far too big on him. “I’m not going to do that,” they say, and Dream’s shoulders shake a bit before squaring.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know,” he says, soft. “And I’m so sorry. For everything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dream sweeps out the front doors, bold like he belongs there. Eret watches him leave, and mourns, just a little, for a god who was once a brother.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Tomorrow, they hear what happens, on the hill. They hear about the axe and the boy and the cloak that Dream, supposedly, holds tight, even as he yields. Dream visits Eret that afternoon, armed with weapons and protected by armor, but for once, not against them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to go do something,” he says fiercely, sounding sure of himself for the first time in a long time. “It might take me awhile.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well,” Eret says. “Go for it. I’m glad. Be happy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dream smiles at that, and he hefts his sword and offers the cloak back to them. “Sorry I accidentally stole this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Keep it,” Eret insists, gesturing to the one they’re currently wearing. “I have plenty. And I heard it might be cold, where you’re going.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dream smiles again. “Thank you,” he says, soft. “For everything.”)</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>stay safe everyone! comments and kudos much appreciated &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>